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Twist Collective Blog

Design Process: Zenith

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Published on Tuesday, 18 December 2012 23:00

This lovely wrap cardigan is Linden Down's first contribution to our stitchy pages here at Twist Collective. This post tells the story of how a sweater she knitted for herself became the gorgeous garment you see below. The color of her original, by the way, is wildly stunning, don't you think?? You can find this post- and much more- on her blog, Stockinette.

My very first pattern published in twist collective! I’m still pretty giddy from the whole thing, even though the pattern was accepted months ago and I’ve had to keep my quiet about it for, like, ever. When I sent in my submission, I had actually already worked up the pattern and knitted a sweater for myself, but I also sent in a picture of my swatch and my sketch.

You can see that as the pattern evolved from the sketch I decided not to make the collar quite as deep and I shortened the ribbing on the sleeves a bit.

After the pattern was accepted, a few more changes were made in the next version and now we have Zenith! My main inspiration for the sweater was the super-trendy chevron thing that is going on right now and I wanted to repeat that pattern for a subtle texture all over the cardigan. I was also going through a vertical twisted ribbing phase when I designed this sweater and you know I can never resist a shawl collar.

I started with figuring out how I wanted to work the chevrons, and I settled on a simple purl bump pattern. It took me a while to decide exactly how to do the ribbed collar because I needed the edge to look nice on both sides since it would be folded over. I finally decided to go with an i-cord edge that is worked simultaneously with the body.

As for the construction of the sweater, it is knit in 5 pieces (6 if you count the belt) and seamed. The sleeves are set in, and the shoulder seams are finished using a three-needle bind off. The ribbing for the collar is worked past the shoulder (imagine you place the shoulder stitches on a holder and then continue to knit only the ribbing so that you will have a strip of ribbing that extends past the shoulders) on both sides, then the collar pieces are joined at the center back neck with kitchener’s stitch and finally the whole collar is sewn to the back neck. I know that’s a long explanation, but I promise it makes sense as you’re doing it!

I’m so excited about this pattern and I really hope people like it and enjoy knitting it! The pattern is written for nine sizes, ranging from 34 3/4″ to 67 3/4″ bust. The yarn I used for the twist sample was the lovely elann.com Peruvian Sierra Aran in Plum Heather (be sure to check out the yarn website where Zenith is the featured pattern for this yarn and there is another picture of the sweater!) If you’d like to take a look at even more pictures, head on over to the pattern page on twist collective. And don’t forget to look at the other amazing patterns in this issue!